Other Food Allergies

Peanut Free Churches

I will be asking the same at the church I am planning to attend as well.
email from my friend:
Hey chick,
I am meeting with the chidlren's minister to get our church peanut free. Where can I get sample plans of peanut free policies? She said she's like to see what other institutions are doing. Anything you've got would be great!
I hope all is well.
Tina
anyone else tackled this?

Not sure how helpful this will be, but our church is not peanut free, however we have a pretty good handle on the preschool/childrens' church end...there are 3 kids w/ pa and egg allergy at our church. We went before the business meeting and got a children's budget approved (we're a fairly small church, w/ about 16-20 kids under 6 every Sunday)...w/ this budget, we bought cubbies to install outside of the children's sunday school rooms so all diaper bags, coats, etc could be stored there (in case they contained food). We bought a pager system and name tags that clip to the childrens' shirts in case of emergencies. We have signs posted outside each of these rooms that state something about severe food allergies, no outside food allowed. The 3 moms (including me) take turns buying safe snacks which we put into these small plastic cups w/ lids (I think they are souffle cups)...these are stored in a locked cabinet...we had a training session w/ all children's volunteers. No food is to come into these rooms other than the safe food in the cups...our children are "trained" as well that the only foods they eat on Sunday AM comes from these cups.
Now, people are usually pretty good about all of this, but they do forget at times. We also have Wed night potlucks (Baptist, can you tell?LOL) and those are not nutfree...but I bring his food anyway.
I hope this helped at least a bit...I guess we handle it more on the individual classroom's basis, but i'd love it if the whole church were nut free.
Melissa

we dont really have a policy but over all the church has been pretty good. they used to serve peanut products at choir practice but after finding out that 3 of the kids (they would have done it for one) had peanut allergies they stopped this. For sunday school and childrens church I moniter all the snacks, there are NO peanut snacks but sometimes there might be one with milk so I have a sign up about what he can have. The most trouble I have had is at pot lucks or picnics.. I am not sure how I can get those peanut free though as it is a very large church. He is with us at those events though and I bring his food.

We recently asked that our church become peanut free and everyone was very understanding.
Actually, the first time we found out about her PA- I was at a cookie swap with the "church ladies" and my husband called me because her mouth was swelling up from a PB cookie and had to leave frantically to take her to the ER. After that she would sometimes get hives from contact reactions at church. The last time she got a contact reaction, someone had actually brought a jar of PB for a soup and sandwich potluck!!!! Just thinking about all those kids running around touching everything really freaked me out. So, I went to church early the next Sunday and did a THOROUGH cleaning.
The pastor and children church and nursery people were curious about what I was doing. After explaing to them about her contact reactions I asked if we could make the church peanut free. They were really supportive about it. The pastor announced it that morning and my DH got up and gave a small speech on PA. My PA dd is in nursry so I asked that all kids would wash up as soon as they got there. She had no problem with that- she works in the school cafeteria and they take lots of precautions with PB so I feel safe with her in charge. Nursery already had a no food policy. We printed out a peanut free sign (got of this website) hung it in a laminate sheet and posted it at the church entrance. (after pastor's final approval of course [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/wink.gif[/img]) I also made a PA info sheet that I emailed to all the members and put copies on the pamphlet table.
Candies handed out are also checked to be safe. All announcements about potlucks include the warning about peanut- we also bring dd own food from home. I make sure our potluck dish is a favorite of my kids so they can pretty much just eat that. Also, my LEAST favorite- cleaning. Just to be on the safe side I try to get in whenever I can to clean things she'll touch.
Most important, COMMUNICATE. Talk about her allergy A LOT. Thank people graciously for their cooperation. NEVER downplay her reactions. Talk honestly about your fears and the stresses of PA. The more they can empathize with you- the more they can cooperate.

Oh- remind them about washing and brushing teeth if they have PB before church. When I first mentioned this the pastor said - "I'm so glad you said something!! I have PB toast every morning and just lick my fingers clean" EWW! I even had a lady come up to me an tell me that her ds- 2 yo just like my dd and in nursry together- had ate PB that AM and hadn't brushed. I thanked her for letting us know, asked her to wash his hands and gave her toothpaste and a toothbrush. (I ALWAYS have a ton of these things in my purse- and they have been a lifesaver LITERALLY) that really drives home the seriosness of PA.

One thing you should remember is that often churches and synagogues rent out their facilities on off days/nights.

Once we attended synagogue and there were peanuts all over the carpet where the social hall joins the sanctuary. I went ballistic! There had been a rental the night before but my feeling was the rental people did not belong in the sanctuary anyway.

we no longer attend church but in the past we've had lots of problems with peanut products (especially pb and candy and cookies) being brought in by individuals and offered to our pa girls even when the "peanut-free policy" was supposedly in place. we could never find a way to be certain our kids wouldn't be offered foods or subjected to them being in close contact with them even when staff did their best. maybe it's part of my excuse(s), but it just became easier to either quit going altogether OR take my kids to grown-up church with me. one thing that irks me is that i don't understand why kids have to be offered or surrounded by food during sunday school and church....didn't they just all eat breakfast??? same thing for after ballgames and things....why have them get a great workout and then shove some garbage down their throats? just ranting...sorry. the church thing was always an issue for me though. too many variables like unadvised people (parents, volunteers, etc) bringing in food in spite of the plan that was in place.

We just wrote a letter to our church asking about the possibility of making it nut or at least peanut-free. They said no, but were fairly understanding. They agreed to make the children's area peanut-free and to label everything in the kitchen or if it was present at a potluck.
I'm fairly happy with this compromise. It's like anywhere else we go; we just have to be careful. and, yes, we now take food with us for our 3-yr-old PA/TNA daughter, after she had a reaction from cross-contamination with walnuts at the last church potluck. (Just from eating a cracker that was near the walnut-covered cheese ball). Didn't occur to me at the time.
Best to you with this issue!
Julie

We attend a large church and they have been great with allergies. They have signs saying 'no peanuts/nuts" posted outside the nursery/Sunday school rooms and also have a great allergy plan. A couple rooms say "no milk" if there is a child with that allergy in the room. They have a picture of the child on the wall with emergency instructions and all volunteers are trained on the use of an epi-pen. Our church has a paging service (already in place to reach parents of upset children) that they will use to contact the parents. They also will page the medical code which allows any doctor in church to see that they are needed in the kids area.

Our church has been extremly accomodating. We have a number of kids with allergies so they pretty much had this stuff in place before we needed it to be!

I think they also have a brochure about the nursery/Sunday School in which they include a reminder to parents about allergies and the seriousness of it. They pretty much use the line 'in order to keep all of our children safe...' etc.

I suppose it isn't completely nut free since they don't restrict nuts at events that don't involve children..but they are excellent at cleaning up so I never worry about that stuff. And the children's rooms are only used for children's events, so that's not a worry!

I'm a pastor at a small church, and I'm updating a peanut allergy policy for our children's ministry. I would greatly appreciate any information you or your churches could provide to help me make this protocol as effective as possible. If you've got any advice or a currently written policy, could you please let me know? Thank you!